Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony is just one of myriad communications services provided via packet-switched networks today. To utilize these many services, end users employ computing devices (e.g., personal computers or dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) telephones) for network access. Such end user devices are known as customer premises equipment (CPE).
CPE is often provided to an end user in an unprovisioned state, such that the CPE is not initially configured to access and use the network services to which the end user has subscribed. For example, when an end user purchases a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) telephone, the telephone typically is not initially configured with the telephone number and/or the particular service features (e.g. call waiting, caller ID) which will make up the end user's subscription. Rather, the end user's service provider typically registers and provisions the SIP phone remotely when the end user first connects the SIP phone to the service network.
To accomplish remote provisioning, one or more configuration files are provided to the CPE via the service network. The CPE then uses parameters included in the configuration file(s) to register with the service network and to access the services to which the end user has subscribed. As an example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/472,388, filed Jun. 22, 2006, entitled “Methods and Systems for Securely Configuring a Network Device” and incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, describes a secure method for distributing CPE configuration files while avoiding thefts of service by man-in-the-middle attacks.
Once initial provisioning is complete, additional configuration files may be used to adjust the parameters of the CPE (e.g., to effect a change in the end user's subscription). Additionally, the CPE end user and/or the service provider may have occasion to reset the CPE (e.g., to return a device to a known previously operative default state, or for purposes of running device diagnostics). However, known methods of resetting CPE are inflexible and can sometimes produce undesired results. Consequently, there is a need for improved systems and methods of configuring and resetting network devices.